The Uzumaki files: Jinchuuriki of Cocoon
by Gerti
Summary: When Vanille is cornered by an angry mob with no chance of escape, a man who is out of place steps in to assist. With a flick and a twist, a new legend is born. Fal'cie are not always the most dangerous things around after all.
1. Chapter 1

***Note: edited some minor errors 10/11/10, nothing major.**

**Gerti could not possibly own something as epic as Final Fantasy 13, nor could he possibly own Naruto. Do you seriously think I'd be writing fanfiction if I did?**

**...**

**Okay so I probably would still be writing, or at least reading, fanfiction. But thats not the point.**

Chapter 1

Feet pounded on the ground as a young girl with astoundingly red hair sprinted down the street, away from the angry, armed, and bloodthirsty mob chasing her.

Among the many people in said mob was a man with spiked blond hair and blue eyes, wearing a long and thoroughly worn trench coat. For him, this scene brought back far too many memories.

The girl had been running for some time, ducking into alleys and outmaneuvering her pursuers, and it was starting to wear her down. Terrified as she was she had been surviving on luck and adrenaline for far too long, and if one of them ran out... well, best not to think about it. She continued running, panting with exhaustion and fighting back panic while desperately trying to find a way to escape. As she turned onto another street and looked around her luck finally gave out for there was yet another mob screaming towards her from the opposite direction. She slid to a stop and dashed into an alley, desperate for some respite, only to trip on a piece of cement jutting from the ground. Pain shot up her leg as she landed and she yelped at the stabbing sensation while holding her injured limb. Whimpering in pain she crawled into the corner at the rear of the alley and sat with her knees pulled to her chest, listening as the mob approached the alley, and as she lost all control of her panic, Vanille wept.

He was one of the first to enter the alley the girl had fled into, and he already knew it was a dead end. Only one person had made it into the alley before him; an oldish, nondescript man with reddish hair who was carrying a, rather stereotypical, torch and pitchfork and who was marching towards the girl. He was driven on by a chant of "Kill the L'cie!" from the rest of the mob, who had decided to wait outside the alley where it was safe. The golden haired man stopped dead at the all too familiar scene before him. An image of a young child with flaxen hair cowering in an alley while a mob approached flashed through his mind. The only difference was the victim. And the chant. He watched as the girl looked at him with terrified tears streaming down her face, then she covered her head and started shaking, and obviously not from the temperature. As the man in front of him raised his weapon to strike, Naruto moved.

Evan, which was the name of the red haired man, lifted his pitchfork and, with a hoarse battle-cry, drove it towards the L'cie. He wasn't expecting another hand to catch his wrist in a vice-grip and stop his weapon well clear of its target. Confused, bewildered, betrayed, these were all words that could be used to describe Evan as he looked over to find the man who had been by his side this entire time staying his hand. "Wha-?" was the only statement he could force out of his mouth before he was pushed back roughly and a certain blond haired, blue eyed man stood between him and the L'cie, looking absolutely murderous.

"Wha-?" was the only thing Evan had managed to say so far, but this blindingly brilliant question was soon followed by several equally eloquent statements, such as: "why-?", "When-" and, perhaps his favorite, "huh?"

When Evan was finally able to form a complete sentence he narrowed his eyes at the other man.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice, tightening his grip on the torch in his free hand.

Naruto met the man's gaze evenly, not letting the pitchfork move another inch towards the shivering girl on the ground.

"I can't honestly say. But it seems like this is the right thing to do." Came his response, as his form flickered like a candle flame in a light breeze.

His eyes softened as he knelt by the girls side and he reached over to lay a hand on her shoulder, but she flinched away from the contact, still hiding her face. Evan was standing stock still, his eyes glazed. He quickly shook out of his daze however, only to feel something roll to a stop against his foot. He looked down, it was a grenade.

The blonde man turned as Evan sprinted screaming out of the alley, and he crouched down to cover the girl with his body. He watched as she raised her head, her forest-green eyes meeting his sea-blue ones, looking confused with a spark of disbelieving hope in her eyes. And, just before the grenade detonated, Naruto smiled.

**I hope you enjoyed reading, please exit through the left and drop your review in the box.**

**Thank you!**


	2. Chapter 2

***Note: Minor errors fixed, small change to the scene at the end.**

**Hello again, people of indistinct and mysterious gender.**

**My first official act as an author with a story totaling two chapters and reviews will be to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited, or story alerted my first chapter.**

**I would especially like to thank Samurai89 for his/her help in editing my chapter and her/his tips on writing fanfiction.**

Chapter 2

Vanille woke to the amazingly delectable aroma of scrambled eggs and bacon. She sat up in bed, stretched painlessly, and immediately noticed three things that were very wrong. One, this wasn't her bed. Two, no-one in her group could cook that well. And three, her staff was nowhere in sight. Confused, she was in the process of standing up when her memories flooded back and she fell onto the mattress as panic fluttered in her chest.

'What happened?' She thought frantically, 'I remember I was running, then there were two mobs, then I tripped, then someone stopped the leader from killing me, those eyes, and then an explosion... but what happened after that?'

She was still trying to remember what had occurred when the door opened and shook her out of her musings. A head appeared around the door and she recognized the man immediately by his eyes, the same eyes she had seen before everything exploded and she had blacked out.

"Oh good you're awake!" he exclaimed before the rest of his body appeared around the door as he entered the room. "I didn't know if you were gonna come-to any time soon."

She simply stared at him, taking in his appearance, he was pretty tall, well-muscled, had spiky blond hair, and oddly enough, three black whisker marks on each cheek. His clothing was worn, but still serviceable, and his hands were stained with ink.

"Are you alright though?" he asked and she looked up before nodding.

"I wasn't sure if you had injuries under your clothes, and I couldn't check so..." His voice trailed off as she blushed and she took the chance to voice her own questions.

"Who are you?" she asked, "Why did you help me?"

Naruto glanced away and replied "Names Naruto Uzumaki, and as for why I helped you..." he looked back at her and said, "Well, let's just say I know how it feels to be in that kind of situation."

That statement alone was enough to send Vanille's mind reeling.

"You're a L'cie?" was Vanilles shocked response.

Naruto just blinked a few times, his expression blank.

"Nope. Close though." He responded, confusing her thoroughly before he started to leave. He stopped just before he went through the doorway, "What's your name by the way? I didn't catch it."

She looked at him for a moment before a radiant smile broke out on her face,

"It's Vanille."

After returning to the kitchen and dispelling the clone that was cooking, Naruto pondered the newest resident of his home. He didn't regret saving her, but it was going to cause all sorts of trouble for him to shelter her.

'Oh well,' he thought, 'Things were getting a little boring around here anyway.'

And now that he thought about it, it _had_ been awhile since he'd arrived in Cocoon. Naruto shuddered, he could still remember being dragged into a portal by a Fal'cie who, in his ensuing rampage, had been promptly mauled. He thought back to what he'd actually done in the past year; he'd explored the city, learned the local language, set up a small but profitable business, and bought his home, nothing particularly exciting. Perhaps it was finally time for him to start seriously looking into what had happened to bring him here. He stood completely still as he reminisced, a floorboard creaked.

He wrinkled his nose and glanced into the hallway, frowning. He had heard that there was a group of L'cie in the city... perhaps he should lend them a hand, since it _would_ be in his best interest to assist them. He might even be able to find a Fal'cie that could send him home if he played his cards right. Naruto took the food off of the stove and spoke without looking up.

"You _can_ come in you know, I don't bite. Well, most of the time at least."

A startled noise came from around the corner and Vanille entered the kitchen, looking curious.

"How did you know I was there?" she asked.

"Floorboard." he replied, "Caught a whiff of your scent when you stopped outside. When was the last time you showered by the way?"

Vanille blinked a few times before she responded, "I don't know, about a week ago I think."

Naruto sniffed a few times, "Yeah that sounds about right. Want some breakfast?" he asked, holding a plate out to her.

Vanille smiled brightly and took the plate with a cheery "Thank you!" before sitting down at the table. Naruto could only speculate as to why she was so accepting of the situation before he shrugged and sat down with a plate of his own.

Before he finished his first bite the questions started pouring out.

"So, what exactly happened last night?"

He held up a finger while he swallowed before responding.

"I'm gonna summarize because I'm hungry, but the gist of it is, I stopped what's his name from killing you. And then I threw a grenade and-"

"Grenade?" Vanille interrupted loudly, "Why did you throw a grenade? Someone could have gotten hurt!"

Naruto stared at her for a moment, wondering why she was so worried about hurting the people who had been trying to kill her, before continuing,

"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted by the girl whose life I saved, after I set off the grenade, far enough away from the mob so as not to hurt anyone, I got us out of there before the smoke cleared, healed your injuries, and brought you here. The whole city probably thinks you're dead now!"

And as the full impact of these words hit her like a ton of bricks, Vanille gasped.

Vanille's eyes widened as she imagined what Fang would do if she thought Vanille had been killed by an angry mob.

"That's not good. That is really, not good." She said as she jumped up and started searching hurriedly around the kitchen.

"What's not good?" Naruto asked, still sitting at the table.

"I have to find Fang before she tries to blow up Cocoon!"

Naruto looked both shocked and confused when he replied.

"Wait... what?! Who's going to blow Cocoon?"

"Fang!" was Vanille's panicked answer as she searched frantically for her staff, her usual smile nowhere to be found.

"Who's Fang?" Naruto asked, noting her lack of cheerful facial features, and held out her staff which he'd had hidden in a cabinet. He donned his coat from the night before and watched her as she put on a strained smile.

"My sister!" she said, her emotional mask back in place, "And she'll be very angry if I don't let her know I'm still alive!"

Hoping she wasn't too late Vanille ran outside, she didn't know where she was headed but she apparently didn't need to as Naruto took the lead before long and brought her to a small garage with a hover-bike in it.

"Maybe I'll introduce you after I convince her not to destroy anything! And the rest of the group too!" she shouted over the roar of his vehicle as he started it up.

They mounted the hover-bike, with Vanille sitting behind Naruto, and sped off towards the sector of Cocoon Vanille had been in last night. And as he realized his little vacation was finally over, Naruto woke his 'tenant'.

To say Fang was furious would be a massive understatement. After seeing the explosion that had 'killed' Vanille on a newscast, she had lost it. She was currently headed towards the sector where said explosion had occurred in a bloodthirsty rage, fully intending on wiping the pathetic cesspit from the map. Her companions were trailing behind her in differing states of shock, Sazh had taken it the worst after Fang, he had grown fond of Vanille in their time together. Lightning and Snow were the only members of the group still moderately in control of their emotions and they knew they would have to stop Fang, angry as they were over Vanille's death, before she could do any serious damage. They hadn't come here to destroy the city after all, just to topple the Sanctum and give Cocoon real human leaders. And as the woman mourning the loss of her little sister finally arrived in the sector she was looking for, Fang summoned her Eidolon.

Naruto turned off his bike and dismounted just as Fang shouted for Bahamut to attack. He saw two other people who were holding some sort of glowing crystals, which he thought was rather odd, but he didn't dwell on it as he leapt forward into the Eidolons path when it charged a nearby apartment complex. In the time it took for the Eidolon to cover several meters worth of ground Naruto had braced himself and charged his arms with chakra to offset its advantages in weight and speed. The Eidolon barely had time to realize there was something in its path before the shinobi caught its jaws and left furrows in the ground as its momentum pushed him back, kicking up a storm of dust. When the air cleared moments later Naruto was met with six nearly identical expressions of shock, one came from off to the side, as he pulled back his fist and delivered a devastating uppercut to the dragon's jaw, sending it rearing back in pain. Dusting himself off Naruto shot an annoyed glare in Fang's direction before looking back in the direction of his hover-bike where Vanille was just dismounting.

"I'm guessing this is your sister." he deadpanned before returning his gaze to the older woman.

A shout of "Fang!" rang out and Vanille ran to embrace her surrogate sibling. As the other members of the NORA group rushed towards her, their Eidolons forgotten, Fang was staring at Vanille and obviously struggling not to show any tears.

"You're alive?" she asked in a quiet voice.

And as Vanille looked up her sister with a radiant smile and nodded Fang returned the embrace and buried her face in Vanille's hair. While this scene was unfolding Naruto looked on with a sad smile and couldn't help but feel a little depressed, he had never had a family after all. The blond shinobi leaned back against the wall of the building he had just saved and watched as two people broke away from the group and approached him warily. One was a huge bear of a man with blond hair under a black cap, who was wearing a long white coat with black clothing underneath and who carried himself with an air of confidence that bordered on cockiness. The other was nearly his opposite in every way, she was a smaller woman with dark pink hair who carried herself with an aura of command and, he couldn't help but notice, who was wearing an extremely short skirt. As the mismatched duo approached he could tell the woman was in charge around here and, by the way that she carried herself, that she was a skilled fighter.

'Well, no match for me of course.' he thought as the two L'cie stopped a few meters away from him, both glancing at the furrows he had left in the ground.

The woman spoke first, just as he'd predicted.

"Who are you, why was Vanille on your bike, and what the hell did you just do?" She asked in a tone that would have made lesser men cower in fear.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, but otherwise remained completely silent. Lightning stood there, waiting, for almost thirty seconds before she started to get annoyed.

"Well?" she asked her hand moving to rest on the hilt of her gun-blade, "Who are you? Answer me!"

Naruto stayed silent as Fang finally released Vanille and looked in his direction.

"Yes. I'd like to hear the answer to that as well." she said and it was Vanille who came to his defense.

"His name is Naruto and he's the one who saved me yesterday!" she exclaimed before looking towards Naruto, tilting her head curiously as he remained silent, "Hey, Naruto, are you alright?" she asked.

"It's considered polite to introduce yourself before demanding another's name." he replied, smiling innocently.

The entire group gave Vanille an 'Is he crazy?' look before Fang spoke up.

"Okay kid, quit it and tell me just what the hell happened yesterday."

Naruto's smile lessened and he sized up the newest L'cie, she was a very... feral... looking woman in tribal clothing with greying hair and a red spear-like weapon resting on her shoulder. He was about to reply to her question in full when his heightened senses picked up sirens in the distance and he decided to summarize instead.

"I kept the mob from killing her," he pointed to Vanille here, "and got her to a safe place afterwards. If you want to continue this interrogation I'll be happy to oblige you at a safer location, like my place, Vanille knows where it is." he said pulling out a small key and mounting his hover-bike.

"You should probably hurry though!" he yelled over the roar of the engine starting, "The cops will be here any minute!"

And throwing a mock salute in Vanille's direction Naruto sped off towards his house. Snow and Lightning exchanged wary glances, not liking the idea of going to this guy's house, but Vanille was already skipping off in the same direction as Naruto with Fang and Sazh close behind her. Lightning sighed and Snow shrugged with a cocky grin on his face before both started following the chipper young girl, Hope trailing along behind them.

**A/N:**

**The next chapter will take a while depending on how lazy I decide to be.**

**If you have any ideas, suggestions, advice, compliments, random inane thoughts of negligible importance, please put them in a nice little review and hit send. I'd really appreciate it.**

**Really, really appreciate it.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Note:**

**I apologize for the late update. I have no excuse other than writers block and laziness.**

**Gerti doesn't own them!**

Vanille was skipping along in the direction of Naruto's house, humming a tune under her breath. Fang was on her left and Sazh on her right, both were keeping up with her and looking no worse for wear than when she had left them.

"So how exactly do you know where this Naruto guy lives anyway?" Fang asked, keeping close beside her.

"Well, that's where he brought me last night after he saved me from the mob." she replied cheerily.

Fangs eyes narrowed dangerously upon hearing this and she growled murderously.

"You were at this guy's house all last night, and unconscious to boot?"

Vanille nodded, still smiling, before she realized what Fang was implying and turned nearly red enough to match her hair.

"Fang!" she complained loudly, "Stop that, nothing happened!"

Fang simply glared in the direction Naruto had left in.

"And how would you know? You were unconscious weren't you? And in this guy's house, not many men can resist that kind of thing."

Vanille covered her ears wishing the ground would simply swallow her whole.

"Fang! Stop it!" she looked away from her sister to find Sazh with a hand over his mouth trying to smother his laughter.

Upon seeing the look on Vanille's face he cracked up.

"My ribs!" he shouted as he burst into helpless laughter.

Vanille looked back at her sister to find that the older woman was not amused.

"I'm serious Sazh!" she said but Vanille, at the sight of Sazh in hysterics, was already trying to smother her own fit of giggles. And failing miserably.

"Don't worry Fang," she managed to say, "Naruto didn't seem like that kind of guy."

Fang watched Vanille and tried to keep the scowl on her face, she really did, but she had never been able to stay angry for very long with Vanille around. The girl could make a brick smile.

Naruto arrived at his house within a few minutes and immediately made his way inside. After locking the door he walked down the hallway to stop before the last door on the right. He made a few hand-seals and placed his hands on the smooth wood causing it to ripple and change to look like an unmarred continuation of the wall as the jutsu took effect.

The blond shinobi let out a relieved sigh, it was a good thing Vanille hadn't found her way into _that_room. He'd have had a hell of a time explaining its contents.

He slowly made his way around the house, making sure everything was in order before he laid down on his couch and slept.

The blond jinchuuriki woke sometime later as one of the security seals he'd placed around his house activated. The blond yawned and looked to the clock to see it was nearly midnight.

"What the hell took them so long?" he muttered rubbing his eyes.

He stood up yawning again as a second security seal activated, this one much closer, and moved to stand by the door. As the final seal went off he opened the door to see Vanille preparing to knock while the rest of the L'cie stood behind her, glancing around warily.

"Took you long enough." he mumbled as he stepped aside to let his guests, of which only Vanille actually greeted him, enter. As the group arranged themselves on his rather sparse furniture Naruto closed the door, locked it, and with a quick hand-seal re-activated his security system. Then he turned and found six pairs of eyes watching his every move. He simply stood there for a moment staring back at them before flashing a smile at Vanille and rubbing his hands together.

"Well, I suppose we might as well get started."

The next morning

Naruto entered the living room where most of the L'cie were sleeping.

Vanille had nodded off first, falling asleep where she sat. Hope had gone down second, but he'd lay down on the floor under a blanket first. Almost immediately after that Fang had picked up Vanille and carried her into the guest room where both had ended up sleeping. A few minutes later Sazh had simply slumped over in his chair, snoring gently.

Then, after hours of interrogating a certain blond haired ninja, Lightning had finally fallen asleep, still scowling over one of Naruto's uninformative answers. And last, but not least, was Snow who after about five minutes of staring blankly into space had fallen over sideways and fallen asleep with his head on Lightning's lap.

She was probably going to shoot him for doing so.

Naruto smirked and moved the large man's head. Lightning was going to wake up in a bad enough mood what with her staying up late trying to pry any information out of the shinobi other than his name and the events of Vanille's rescue.

'Huh, guess I did learn something from Kakashi after all'

He smiled sadly at the thoughts of home. He'd panicked when he'd first gotten dragged into this place, and he could still remember exactly how it had happened.

One minute he'd been dodging kunai being thrown at him by an enemy ninja, and the next he was on his hands and knees before a Fal'cie. He'd gone berserk, wounded the Fal'cie before regaining control of himself, and run off into the city. The following weeks had been spent desperately searching for a way home. He'd even gone so far as to ask Kyuubi for help, but the fox had just laughed at him.

As he reminisced Naruto caught a glimpse of someone in the corner of his eye.

Less than a second later Vanille was staring wide-eyed at the kunai embedded in the wall half an inch from her neck. Naruto swore, eyes wide, and moved over to the stunned girl.

"You all right?" he asked, chagrined.

She nodded.

"Sorry about that," he continued, moving to pull the knife out of the wall, "I don't like it when people sneak up on me."

Vanille lowered her eyes and leaned against the wall before replying

"I know what you mean."

Naruto glanced at her, meeting her eyes for a moment before he turned towards the kitchen.

"Why are you up so early anyway?" he called as he entered the kitchen.

"Why are _you_ up so early?" she countered

His head popped back around the corner,

"I had some deliveries to make." he responded smiling.

Vanille glanced at the clock.

"At five in the morning?" she asked.

The shinobi was now completely back in the room, he glanced at the other L'cie who, despite all the noise they were making, were still asleep.

"Yes. Are they going to wake up anytime soon?"

Vanille arched a single eyebrow at him.

"You know, _most_ people don't wake up at five in the morning," she said crossing her arms, "They might be awhile."

Naruto snorted and shook his head.

"Lazy bums." he muttered before turning to face Vanille again, "But that brings us back to my original question, what are you doing up so early?"

For a split-second Vanille's smile faltered. If she were talking to anyone other than him, it would have gone unnoticed. But he had seen it, something was troubling her.

"Nothing." she replied and moved to stand by one of the few windows in his house.

Naruto frowned for a moment and positioned himself beside her.

"Something's wrong." he said, looking out the window.

She remained silent for a moment.

"Why don't you like it when people sneak up on you?" she asked, in a rather obvious attempt at changing the subject.

"Bad childhood." he responded evenly.

She glanced at him.

"Bad enough that you throw knives at anyone who does?"

He nodded, gaining a look of reminiscence as he did.

"What happened?" she asked.

He shook his head and turned to walk away.

Vanille watched him leave in silence.

**Authors Note:**

**I don't know when my next update will be, I need ideas if I'm going to continue anytime soon.**

**So review! That'll definitely help me update faster!**

**Well that and the fact that there are no more Jim Butcher books for me to read.**

**Anyway, review.**

**Please?**

**Pretty Please?**


	4. Chapter 4

It had been two weeks since the L'cie had taken up residence in the home of Uzumaki Naruto. And they soon found out about his rather unusual schedule.

It being unusual because it seemed to be non-existant.

Naruto's life was nothing if not chaotic and Vanille was the only person who knew of the one thing he did each day without fail. Each morning before any of the other L'cie had awoken Vanille would watch as Naruto left the house carrying a small rucksack, which would be empty upon his return. She'd asked him, once, what it was he was doing but he had simply shrugged and said "Making some deliveries." before making his way out the door. When he returned from his excursions he would make breakfast for himself and Vanille as if he hadn't been gone for nearly an hour.

And it annoyed her to no end.

She had grown close to Naruto in their time together. He was funny, kind, strong and nearly impossible not to like. Oh Lightning still scowled whenever he entered the room, but that was because she had yet beat him when they sparred. And because he was such a great person, Vanille considered Naruto to be one of her best friends.

So one day, she followed him.

The second she heard the front door close, signaling Narutos' exit, she went straight to the window to watch him walk down the street. As soon as he turned a corner she made her way out of the house. She followed silently behind him for a few minutes while he made his way deeper into the city. Eventually he made his way to a small building, pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, nodded to himself, and set the bundle that was in his pack down at the front door before walking away.

Vanille was dumbfounded, was he telling the truth about making deliveries?

Was she turning into Lightning?

Paranoid and distrustful towards everyone she met?

And in the midst of her, rather depressing, pondering she noticed that Naruto was walking _away_ from his home, so she was quick to follow. Trailing him as he wound his way through the sparsely populated streets of Cocoon. Soon after Naruto arrived at a small hill, there was an old, weather-beaten sign at the base the read 'Melancholy hill' in peeling paint. The grass was green and full of life, a breeze blew through the air.

But what was on top of the hill was what caused her to stop, and stare.

It was a tree.

A behemoth of a plant that she hadn't seen since her childhood on pulse.

In her native tongue its' name could be translated into 'Armored tree', but here on Cocoon it was simply called a Plastic tree. The mere sight of the tree was enough to bring back memories of her long-lost home to mind, and tears to her eyes. There had been a similar plant in her village on pulse. By the time she had wiped away the moisture in her eyes Naruto had climbed to the top of the hill and was sprawled out at the base of the trunk, seemingly asleep. Several minutes passed and Vanille was beginning to think the guy had fallen asleep. So she started when he suddenly waved at her without opening his eyes, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Before he'd even left the house he'd known that Vanille was going to follow him. Of course he'd known, he _was_ a ninja after all. The subtle glances from the corner of her eye, the tension in the air, a few minute changes in her posture. He had noticed them, and come to a reasonable conclusion. So, after making his delivery for the day he headed to one of his favorite spots in Cocoon. He made his way to the top of the hill and sprawled out in his usual spot at the base of the tree. And after waiting a few minutes he smirked and waved at Vanille. Several seconds later he heard soft footsteps approaching and he patted the ground by his side.

"Sit down Nille-chan." he said, still smirking.

She sat by his side and picked up a leaf off the ground, twirling it between her fingers.

"How did you know I was following you?" she asked.

He opened a single sky blue eye, and glanced at her.

"Practice." he replied, "Now would you mind telling me why?"

She looked down at the leaf in her hand as she answered, clearly embarrassed.

"I was curious... about... why you came out here every day..." she mumbled.

Naruto looked over at her, and smiled softly,

"Well, what's done is done, and you're here with me now."

She remained silent so he continued talking to fill the silence, his mind wandering.

"You know sometimes, it feels like all this is just a dream." he paused for a moment then startled her by asking, "If you could have anything in the world right now, what would it be?"

She looked up and watched the clouds drift slowly past for a minute, contemplating, and a little taken off guard by the question.

"I'd go home." she answered eventually, her voice tinged with sadness.

He glanced away, slightly unsettled, that had been exactly what he would have said.

"I'm guessing that wouldn't be as easy as it sounds." he stated softly, looking up into the foliage of the tree.

Vanille shook her head sadly, still staring at the sky. And oddly, the blond shinobi's face split out in a grin.

"Come on now, don't look so sad." he said and cupped her face with his hand, turning her towards himself, "It doesn't suit you. We need to get that wonderful smile back."

Vanille's face lit up in a smile and she lifted her hand to rest it atop his own.

"And what did you have in mind?" she asked, her eyes twinkling with amusement and her melancholy seemingly forgotten.

Naruto was now wearing a full fledged smile as he reached into his rucksack, pulled out a small, checkered blanket, and spread it out on the ground.

"A picnic should do the trick." he said, reaching back into his rucksack and pulling out a container of various foods. Vanille could only blink as more and more food came out of the pack. Wasn't it a bit too small for all that stuff?

An hour later Naruto and Vanille were sprawled out beside eachother, pleasantly full and basking in the morning light. Naruto looked over at the girl next to him. She was smiling and practically radiated happiness, which was one of the main reasons he enjoyed being around her. She was practically a walking antidepressant. When he was around her he couldn't help but smile and let go of his worries for awhile. The blond shinobi was tempted to just lay back down and go to sleep, but it was about time to get going so he reached over and shook her gently. Vanille opened her eyes and looked over at him, smiling drowsily.

"Yes?" she asked before sitting up and stretching languidly, which Naruto found to be rather intriguing.

"We should get going." he said, taking a moment to file the image away mentally.

She gave him a curious look

"Where?" she asked, her head tilting slightly.

Naruto just grinned before responding, "You'll see." and getting to his feet.

Vanille rolled her eyes and offered a hand which Naruto grabbed hold of to pull her up.

"You just love doing that don't you." she stated before gesturing for him to take the lead.

He instead put an arm over her shoulder, causing her to blush lightly, before steering her down the slope of the hill towards the city.

"Well of course I do," he responded cheerily, "It's in my nature!"

Vanille just smiled, and if she leaned on him a little more than was necessary he didn't seem to mind.

At some point during their trek Vanille began to see a few familiar landmarks and she glanced over at Naruto with a questioning look.

"Nautilus park?" she asked, her smile growing.

Naruto looked back at her with a similar smile

"Yeah, how'd you guess?" he asked in return.

Vanilles smile grew strained at the memory of the last time she'd come to Nautilus park and she shuddered slightly.

"I've been here once before." she said, trying to sound flippant, and failing miserably. Naruto looked concerned for a moment and turned to face her fully.

"If you don't want to go-" he started to say but Vanille quickly cut him off.

"No, it's fine." she said, "I want to go, it's different this time."

And it was true, to an extent, the last time she had been to the park she'd almost been killed. She shook her head, trying to clear away the memories, and pulled Naruto along through the entrance.

"Call in the submarine." she said gesturing towards the button.

Naruto looked back at her, concerned, while reaching forward to press it, only to see her roll her eyes and sigh.

"Push it, I'm fine!"

He pushed the button.

Vanilles smile returned and she skipped over to wait by him.

"So..." he began, putting his hands behind his head, "What do you want to do first?"

Vanille looked thoughtful for a moment before responding.

"How about the chocobo park?"

Naruto shrugged and smiled as the submarine broke the surface of the water. They walked over and he made a sweeping bow, ushering her inside. She rolled her eyes, once again, and stepped past him into the craft. Naruto followed after and sat down by her side. And so, the day began.

Several hours later found Naruto and Vanille sitting on a bench in Nautilus park, eating ice cream.

"I can't believe can still eat," Vanille was saying as Naruto took another bite of his ice cream, "You just ate all that ramen, how _did_ you eat that much anyway?"

Naruto shrugged and gave a fox-like smirk,

"I'm just that good I suppose." he answered, causing Vanille to roll her eyes and grin.

"Always for the cryptic answers that don't reveal anything aren't you?"

Naruto just continued eating, smirking to himself. Right before Vanille reached over and smeared ice cream on his cheek. He stiffened slightly at the cold sensation, earning a giggle from Vanille and, not for the first time, wondered how the girl could manage to make anyones day start looking up, just by being close to them.

But, as was the norm for a jinchuuriki, the moment was ruined by a smoke bomb. Narutos reflexes had not dulled during his time on Coccoon. Just because one was stranded in a different dimension did not mean that one could cease training, so sayeth Uzumaki Naruto. Besides, Naruto was always expecting this kind of thing, and thus he was always well prepared when he left the house in the morning. Reacting on instinct he dived forward off of the bench and hurled one of the kunai hidden on his person into the smoke, earning a cry of pain from one of the approaching enemies. Still hidden he made a familiar cross shape with his fingers and several clones appeared, immediately they darted off in different durections to draw away the attackers. The blond jinchuuriki then moved back to the bench where Vanille was just standing up, it took him all of two seconds to reach the wide-eyed girl, pull her up, and start leading her away from the kill zone of the enemy snipers. Several minutes later the two were crouching in an alley as helicopters flew overhead. Vanille, panting after the long run, looked up as Naruto winced.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

He glanced at her and nodded, he couldn't tell her that one of his shadow clones had just exploded rather spectacularly after all.

"I'll be fine, but we need to keep moving." he stated as he led the red- haired girl out onto a nearby landing pad.

Naruto walked to the very edge of the pad and looked out over the city to try and get his bearings. Five minutes later he had a reasonably good estimation of their location, and he walked to stand next to Vanille.

"I'm pretty sure I know how to get back from here. we should probably get going." he stated as he started moving away, only to come to a sudden halt when he heard the tramp of armored feet as dozens of Psicom soldiers poured onto the landing pad.

"You've got to be kidding me!" the shinobi screamed as two giant dragon-creatures hovered just off the edge of the platform, cutting off their only other escape route. He moved to stand by Vanille and dropped into a taijutsu stance while she unfolded her staff.

One of the soldiers stepped forward with a microphone.

"Stand down and-" He started to say before a kunai embedded itself in the microphone and Naruto was among them.

He lashed out to either side sending two men flying into their comrades before reappearing by a stunned Vanilles brought his hands together growling inaudibly and with a plume of smoke the blond man changed before their eyes. Through the use of several cleverly designed and placed sealing arrays, he was now wearing his Anbu regalia, complete with snarling fox mask and a tant o in a sheath at the small of his back, which he drew menacingly.

"Withdraw, and I'll let you live." he stated to the small army assembled around him.

Off to the side Vanille gaped at his sudden transformation, but she managed to keep a cool head and raised her staff while whispering "Protect."

By now the assembled Psicom soldiers had gotten back into formation and dragged their wounded away from the combat. So, in typical army fashion, they opened fire with a deafening roar. Naruto jumped straight up to avoid the hail of bullets and saw Vanille simply let them ricochet off of the shield surrounding her.

'That's a pretty solid defense, wonder how long it'll last though' he mused as he reached the top of his arc and began peppering the soldiers with kunai while he fell towards them. The kunai, while not doing as much damage because he couldn't aim them properly, cleared out a small space for him to land. As soon as the jinchuuriki hit the ground he was weaving through the soldiers, his blade flashing and every movement either killing or disabling another soldier. Meanwhile, Vanille was holding her own rather well. She'd managed to hook one of the dragons with her staff, causing it to crash into its comrade and send them both careening towards the ground. Right now she was preparing to cast a rather large fire spell at a group of soldiers who were concentrating their fire on Naruto. Only for said man to appear in the midst of the squad just as she cast, causing the entire group to go up in flames. She gasped and immediately yelled "Naruto!" just before she felt someone tap on her shoulder. She whirled around swinging her staff at her assailant, tears forming in her eyes, only to feel a vice- like grip on her wrist which stopped the attack cold.

"Watch where you're attacking!" a familiar voice shouted, "Thats twice now you've almost hit me!"

Time seemed to slow as the words hit the red-haired L'cie and her mouth fell open at the sight of Naruto, virtually unscathed, standing before her.

"Wha-? But how did you survive?" she asked as tears ran down her face and she embraced the shinobi, who was now within the protection of her spell, "I thought for sure I'd killed you and-"

Naruto placed a hand over her mouth, effectively cutting her off, before speaking softly but sternly. "Later, there's fighting to be done."

The L'cie wiped her tears away and threw a glare at the soldiers for ruining the moment.

"Right," she muttered, "Let's do this, Thundaga!" she shouted bringing a huge bolt of lightning down on an entire squad of soldiers. Naruto whistled lowly at the destruction the red-haired L'cie had just wrought.

"Hey, you think you could do that fire one again?" he asked causing Vanille to glance at him before she nodded and her brow furrowed in concentration.

"Firaga!" she shouted sending a torrent of flame at the front rank of the Psicom line. Almost immediately Naruto rushed forward and swung his sword, sending a burst of wind into the raging flames.

The effect was spectacular.

The fire, upon contact with the wind chakra, exploded upwards and began burning white hot, melting through the stone beneath it and everything else nearby. The remaining Psicom soldiers decided to cut their losses and ran, dragging their wounded away as fast as they could. Naruto sheathed his sword and removed his mask, placing it on his belt, before turning to face Vanille.

"We need to start moving towards my place before more of them show up." he stated placing a hand on the girls shoulder.

Vanille, still hyper-aware from the adrenaline rush, just nodded and stumbled towards the exit, wide-eyed. Seeing her failed attempt at walking properly Naruto put an arm around her, missing the resulting blush completely, and helped steady her as the two of them left the area. Several minutes of complete silence later Vanille was attempting to decide on whether or not to question the man about the fight.

'I want to know what it was that he did... But it's proabably a bad time right now.' the girls brows furrowed in concentration as she tried to puzzle the mysterious blond-haired man out. She was startled when Naruto let out an exasperated sigh and looked over at her.

"Just get on with it." he demanded impatiently.

Vanille met his gaze, mildly surprised but unwavering.

"What was that back there?" she questioned, "How did you do all those things if you're not a L'cie?"

Naruto continued walking, arm still around Vanille, with a pensive look as he tried to decide how much he could tell the red-haired L'cie. After several tense moments he mentally shrugged.

"I'm not from around here," he began, which seemed to startle Vanille for some reason, "where I'm from, there are people called shinobi who can do things normal people can't. They're kind of like L'cie, 'cept people don't hate them... For the most part."

Vanille nodded to herself but didn't pry any further. How could she, when she knew what it was like to keep secrets? So instead of pushing into an obviously sore subject, like what had he meant by 'for the most part' she reached over and tapped the mask still on his belt.

"And what's with this?" she asked, stopping, "Were you expecting trouble?"

Naruto used his free hand to pull the mask off his belt and held it up in front of him.

"It's what I wore during missions when I made Anbu, and you should always expect the worst, that way you're not caught by surprise when something bad happens." he replied while turning the mask back and forth to catch the light of the setting sun.

Vanille watched the sunlight glint off the mask and reached out to trace the snarling fox shape.

"I can see why it's a fox," she muttered softly, "But why does it look so angry?"

Naruto tensed for a moment and closed his eyes before returning the mask to his belt.

"It's not supposed to represent me." he responded, his mind wandering back to the day he had retrieved the mask from the Anbu's special blacksmith, a man whose wife had been killed by the Kyuubi.

The man's instructions had been simple, make a fox mask for the new Anbu recruit, Uzumaki Naruto. So, showing that despite all he'd done there were still a few people in the village who would always hate him for being the Kyuubis host, the man had made him a mask alright. It was the most demonic, intimidating, and downright monstrous mask he'd ever created. He'd been a little surprised when he actually met the demon, but he knew it was just a matter of time before that smiling boy turned into a snarling monster.

"Hey! Naruto!" the blond shinobi flinched as someone snapped their fingers in his face. He looked around suddenly remembering he was still with Vanille. He sighed and rubbed his head,

"Sorry about that." he said sounding weary, "anything else you want to know?"

Vanille thought for a moment and started walking again, with Naruto's arm still around her.

"Whats Anbu?" she asked eventually.

"It's a special task force in my village." he answered, then after a moment's thought, "It's kind of like Psicom actually, we're the best of the best and we do the most dangerous missions."

The red-haired L'cie nodded to herself and then surprised him a little by simply shrugging her shoulders, hugging him a little tighter, and saying "Okay." The blond jinchuuriki squeezed her back, he appreciated that she wasn't prying. There were some things that should remain a secret. Eventually the two found their way back to the hill where their day began. Naruto led Vanille to the base of the tree at the top and lowered himself to the ground, the red-haired girl sat leaning against his side with closed eyes.

"I'm sorry." they both said at the exact same time.

Naruto looked at the young L'cie quizzically.

"What are you sorry for?" he asked, genuinely confused, "I'm the one who brought you out here and put you in danger."

Vanille opened her eyes and looked at the blond shinobi, frowning.

"But I'm the one who's being hunted, I brought all of this and ruined our day."

"But that's not your fault, besides who says the day was ruined?"

Vanille just stared for a moment, apparently something he'd said had surprised her.

"We got attacked!" she finally responded, "How does that not constitute our day being ruined?"

Naruto just laughed, shaking his head, and squeezed her tighter.

"Are you kidding?" he asked, causing the red-haired girl to raise an eyebrow, "That was one of the best parts!"

And once again Vanille was speechless.

When she'd finally gotten her wits about her she gave him a look of disbelief.

"You're kidding, right?" she asked, looking him in the eye.

"Nope."

"You liked getting ambushed and nearly killed?"

"I wouldn't say nearly killed, I knew what I was doing."

Vanille just shook her head and leaned against him once more,

"You Naruto, are completely insane." she deadpanned.

And just as she was getting comfortable there under the tree with Naruto, a shot richocheted off the bark of the tree three inches above her head. Naruto sighed and slowly got to his feet as more bullets flew past and Vanille dived around behind the nigh-invulnerable plant. By the time Naruto had gotten himself fully upright the gunfire had risen in tempo and a veritable flood of bullets was whizzing towards them. Although none seemed to hit Naruto for some odd reason.

"I've always wondered why these were called plastic trees." Naruto called out to the L'cie while examining the dents left by the bullets, as the other rounds missed him by mere inches. "They're obviously tougher than that."

"Now is not the time!" Vanille shouted at him, struggling to make herself heard over the roar of the gunfire.

Gunfire that stopped at exactly that moment.

The red-haired L'cie cautiously peered around the side of the tree, only to see Naruto still examining the trunk of the tree and no bullets flying. The hill was ripped to shreds, clumps of earth and had been ripped away from the ground whenever a bullet struck, and several of the trees branches were simply gone.

"What just happened?" she asked, still a little shell-shocked from the sudden attack.

Naruto looked over at her, a foxish grin on his face.

"What do you mean?" he asked innocently, his hands behind his back.

"Where did they-" She started to ask before something hanging from the tree caught her eye.

She looked up into the foliage to see several Psicom soldiers tied up and hanging from the tree unconscious.

"Wh-, when-, how-" she turned towards Naruto, gaping and utterly confused, "Huh?"

The shinobi was peering up at the soldiers, obviously trying to contain his amusement.

"Now where did they come from I wonder?" he deadpanned before shrugging and walking down the hill with his hands behind his head.

Vanille just stared, her head whipping back and forth between Naruto and the unconscious soldiers. After her initial shock wore off she ran after Naruto, catching up to him as he passed by the old, weather-beaten sign at the base of the hill.

"I'm not even going to ask." she mumbled as she slipped her arm through his and matched his pace.

The blond man just smiled brightly and kicked the sign down.

"Not so 'melancholy' now is it?" he asked upon noticing her curious look.

Vanille smiled contently, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and skipped off down the road ahead of him.

Naruto simply stood there for a moment with a surprised look, watching her skip away.

Then he reached up, touched his cheek with a small smile, and followed her home.

**Seriously? This is only 4,739 freaking words? How the heck do people actually manage to get 10,000+ flippin words in their chapters?**

**Bleh, writing fanfiction is way, way, WAY harder than it looks. So I'm sorry about taking so long to update (For those of you who actually**_**like**___**my story) I just run out of ideas really fast.**

**To all of the people out there who reviewed, favorited, etc. my story, THANK YOU!**

**Your reviews really make my day and I really, really appreciate them.**

**As always please review and leave suggestions, comments, thoughts, or point out errors!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Holy crap it's been a while hasn't it.**

**Really sorry about the delay, totally have excuses but I don't feel the need to tell them to you.**

**Anyway, here's the newest installment of the story.**

**Enjoy.**

**(P.S. Thank Outkast00 for this update, he really kicked me out of my funk and got the creative juices running!)**

_By grace of Etro, let thunder herald your arrival. Come forth, sunderer of falsehood._

_A name in blood, a pact of truth. Odin shall rise, his bond eternal and unyielding._

_Keeper of truth. Destroyer of corruption._

_My weapon is light, my steed is thunder. I am the herald of truth._

_I am Odin._

_-Odin's summons_

The next morning soon came to the home of Uzumaki Naruto.  
And with it came the clanging of steel as two warriors engaged in combat.  
Both fighters were eerily silent as they dueled, all of their focus on their opponent. Their blades clashed again and again as each sought to gain the upper hand, but neither was able to achieve an advantage.  
With a final flurry of blows the two combatants jumped apart.  
Naruto on the left, Lightning on the right.  
Shinobi vs. soldier.  
Anbu vs. Sergeant.  
Several seconds passed in which neither moved a muscle.  
A breeze blew past, Lightning dashed forward and stabbed at Narutos midsection. Naruto circled the blade with his own and redirected it before spinning and lashing out with his elbow, but Lightning blocked the blow with her free arm.  
They jumped apart again and Lightning back flipped while taking a potshot at Naruto with her gun-blade. Narutos reflexes saved him as the bullet whizzed past.  
Several handseals later and a sphere of water was flying back at Lightning, who rolled to the side as the liquid cannonball slammed into the ground where she'd been a moment before. Quickly following up on his attack Naruto launched himself through the air with a burst of wind chakra and unleashed a vicious haymaker, intending to end the fight right there. But Lightning countered with a shout of "Aero!"  
The spell knocked Naruto off course, but did very little damage at its most basic level. After Naruto landed on his feet with catlike grace the two immediately began circle-strafing while preparing more powerful attacks. Several tense seconds passes before both thrust their hands forward shouting, "Firaja" and "Katon: Dragon flame missile!" respectively.

The flaming dragon and fireball collided halfway between the combatants. Both attacks fought for dominance before exploding spectacularly several seconds later. The conflagration expanded quickly, reaching Lightning and Naruto within seconds and continuing on its way before being stopped by a massive wall of ice, courtesy of the Shiva sisters. Snow was standing atop the icy structure in a striped jacket, wearing a whistle around his neck, and generally taking his job as referee very seriously.

Behind the frozen barrier Vanille, Sazh, and Hope stood watching the debacle unfold.

"Maybe we should stop them..." Vanille mumbled as the barricade receded to reveal the combatants dueling at speeds the human eye could barely follow.

"You wanna try, go ahead." Sazh replied as a bolt of lightning descended on Naruto, "I think I'll stay back here."

"But they've never gone this far in their fights before!" She said as the wall of ice rose up in front of them once again.

"Vanille's right." Hope interjected, "They shouldn't be wasting their energy like this!" and he began striding forward.

Before he'd taken five steps Snow's wall exploded into a million tiny pieces, revealing Lightning mounted on Odin and Naruto standing atop a giant toad wielding two massive katanas.  
Hope backed up to his previous position by Sazhs side.

"On the other hand maybe we should let them finish. I'm sure they'll be fine."

By this time Fang had made her appearance and took her place at Vanille's side. She immediately turned to watch the fight.

"How long have they been going at it?" She asked as Lightning began dueling the toad from atop Odin while Naruto flung an exploding kunai at her every now and then.

"Not very long." Vanille responded, clasping her hands in front of her face.

Fang watched with a thoughtful expression for a few moments.

"Think they'd mind if I joined in?"

"Fang!" Vanille exclaimed, looking at her friend in shock, "You can't! Those two are causing enough trouble as it is!"

Fang huffed and crossed her arms, her eyes never leaving the battle.

"Fine, but I need to fight something soon or I'm gonna go crazy."

"Crazier." Sazh mumbled from his place by Hope.

"What was that old man?" Fang replied almost immediately, turning to face him.

"Nothing, nothing." he said backing away slowly while raising his hands in a conciliatory fashion and Fang turned back to the fight.

"That's what I thou- DUCK!" the pulse L'cie suddenly screamed as she threw herself to the side.

Vanille's reaction was immediate; she dived in the same direction as Fang. Sazh and Hope took a moment to look back at the fight to see what they were supposed to be ducking.

And they were immediately blown off their feet by a massive shockwave.

Far away an aerial patrol dragon glimpsed something out of the corner of its eye. It pulled up sharply and turned to look at the rising cloud of dust off in the distance. Without hesitation the beast let off a roar and soared towards the disturbance.

As the dust cleared in front of the Uzumaki household several shell-shocked L'cie slowly stood from where they'd been thrown by the explosion. Fang was among the first to rise and helped Vanille up. Hope managed to push himself into a wobbly, but upright, stance. Sazh just groaned and stayed on the ground. The Shiva sisters floated to the earth and gently set Snow down before disappearing. Vanille, holding on to Fang for support until she could regain her balance, began pulling her friend towards the epicenter of the blast to make sure the combatants were all right.

Upon reaching ground-zero they found both Naruto and Lightning still standing with their respective summons gone. Lightning was wearing a calculating expression, as if she were going over the battle in her mind and looking for weaknesses she could exploit.

Naruto was grinning like a loon.

"Are you two okay?" Vanille shouted to them, her voice oddly muted.

Naruto turned towards her and said something in reply, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. She kept moving towards them as she responded.

"What?" she asked.

"Why… yell-… I'm… from you!" came his garbled response.

"You're going to have to speak up!" she told him, "I can't hear you!"

Making a T with his hands at Lightning Naruto made his way over to Vanille. He put his hand by her ear and snapped his finger, but the sound was muted and echoed oddly. Lightning came over at this point and spoke to Naruto, who responded while pointing to her ears.

"What are you saying?" Fang asked, as confused as Vanille was as to why they were whispering.

Naruto winced and covered his ears.

"I think your hearings damaged!" he shouted.

She was about to respond when he put a hand over her mouth. Without moving the appendage, and ignoring the glare he received from Fang, he turned to Lightning and said something, prompting her to nod. The former sergeant cast cura on both of the Pulse L'cie. Her hearing came back with a pop and Naruto removed his hand from her face.

"Better?" he asked.

"Ah, yes, sorry." She answered, slightly embarrassed, "I didn't know I was yelling."

"It's fine, I've seen it happen before." He said, grinning.

"So what happened over here?" Fang asked curiously before the younger girl could respond.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"I'm not entirely sure, I think when I hit Lightning's attack with my rasenshuriken there was some sort of backlash and everything exploded."

The shinobi turned to face Lightning.

"What _did _you do anyway?" He asked, "fuuton: rasenshurikan is a pretty powerful attack."

"It's called razor gale, and it's one of Odin's most powerful techniques." Lightning explained.

Fang was apparently impressed as she turned to speak to Naruto.

"You matched an _Eidolons_ attack?"

Naruto raised a single eyebrow.

"Um, I've beaten an Eidolon before," he said, "Remember, when we first met?"

"Ah, right," The eldest pulse L'cie deadpanned, "You punched Bahamut, in the face."

The shinobi smiled fondly at the memory.

"Heh heh, good times."

Lightning huffed and rolled her eyes.

"I'm assuming our fights over with." She said.

"Yep," Naruto replied, "We'll call it a draw."

The four of them made their way back towards the house. When they reached Sazh they all gathered around him, as he had yet to leave his position on the ground.

Naruto scratched his head in confusion when he saw the afro haired man.

"Um… are you okay Sazh?" he asked, leaning over the prone L'cie.

"Boy, I am forty years old. Let me relax and seize this opportunity to look at the clouds for a while."

Naruto sweat-dropped and immediately thought of a certain pineapple headed shinobi.

"Uh okay, whatever you say." He mumbled as they left the eldest (biologically) member of their group to his lazing.

They approached Snow and Hope, and at this point Naruto began to reflect on how much foreshadowing had apparently gone into some of the L'cies names in regards to their respective Eidolons. Lightning had gotten Odin, who used quite a few lightning attacks. Snow had gotten Nia and Strix, and they controlled ice. If Hopes Eidolon turned out to be some sort of angel he might be tempted to draw some rather suspicious hypotheses. Because that would _one hell _of a coincidence.

"Naruto, I've got to say, that was _awesome_!" Snow shouted when the two groups were close enough.

"I know right!" The orange-loving shinobi yelled back laughing, "I haven't been in an explosion that big in a long time!"

"How do you keep doing this stuff though? Every time I think I've seen your best you pull something like this out of nowhere!"

"Hah! If you ever saw my best technique…" The whiskered blonde trailed off, shaking his head with a smirk.

By this time the two were close enough to bump fists as the group formed a loose circle. Hope was talking with Lightning about her Eidolon, he and Vanille were the only two left without them at this point. Vanille eagerly joined in the conversation between Snow and Naruto, trying to get the shinobi to tell them what his strongest technique was. Fang was shielding her eyes and looking towards the sun, her eyes oddly intent.

She caught everyone's attention moments later.

"We've got company."

All of them turned to look in the same direction as the eldest (Chronologically) L'cie. Naruto was the first to spot it. A massive group of approaching dots, just barely visible as they began to blot out the sun.

"Hey Snow!" The blond jinchuriki shouted, unsealing several kunai.

"Yeah?" The other blond replied.

"Bet I can kill more than you."

Snow smirked at his orange wearing friend.

"You're on!"

Moments later, Cocoon's air-force descended upon them. Dozens of dragons dive-bombed the tightly packed group. Spells flew, weapons flashed, and dragons fell from the sky dead. Snow immediately began walloping the creatures with relish and Fang was right next to him, her battle-staff whirling in a dance of death. Lightning was jumping and rolling all over the place, switching between her gun and blade at a moment's notice. Hope mostly stayed back and supported the others with buff and healing spells. Vanille was in the process of diverting a dragon's flight path into Snows waiting fists when she noticed a group of the beasts congregating in the distance. She stopped and stared at them, her eyes widening as one of the dragons took off with a limp shape in its claws, leaving a score of its brethren dead on the ground.

"SAZH!" her scream was blocked out by the roar of combat and she raced after the retreating monster alone.

Almost immediately after she left the tight circle her friends had formed the dragons began attacking her. Driving her further and further from her allies, they wheeled and about to prevent her from targeting a single enemy. As she lashed out with magic and her staff she searched desperately for her friends, but the creatures were on all sides and there was no respite. She swung her staff and tried to clear the area in front of her with a cry of "Aerora!" but her foes simply rolled through the air away from the spell or powered their way through her magic. She concentrated her energies and began charging a more powerful attack.

It was the opportunity the dragons had been waiting for.

As the young L'cie held her staff aloft one of the many enemies swooped down and caught the weapon in its jaws, ripping it from Vanille's hands and sending her to the ground. She felt massive talons close around her and she screamed as she was borne aloft.

Naruto was a whirlwind of death among his opponents. He sliced his way through the maelstrom of whirling airborne creatures with a grace that defied logic. Every movement was perfectly coordinated to take him out of harm's way, or put him within reach of an enemy. Every attack left a dragon dead on the ground. Every step corralled them exactly where he wanted them to go. He had been trained in the art of dealing death, and to him it _was_ an art, nowhere was it more apparent than here on the battlefield. A dragon snapped its jaws at him and he jumped backwards into the air. Using a burst of wind chakra both to propel himself higher and to send the monster flying into the reach of Fangs battle-staff. He landed near Lightning on the other side of their makeshift barrier and surveyed the battle. The dragons had them vastly outnumbered but that wouldn't be a problem as long as they stayed close enough to support one another.

"Naruto, where's Vanille?" Hope asked frantically as he ran up to the shinobi.

"What?" Naruto whirled around to face the white haired L'cie.

"She's gone!" Hope responded, slightly panic-stricken, "And Sazh is missing too!"

Naruto stared at the young L'cie for a moment.

Then his eyes turned cold.

"Snow!"

The blond L'cie turned at the sound of Narutos voice ready to respond, but he was stopped short by the look on the jinchuriki's face. Naruto met his eyes, seeming to create a lull in the battle through his sheer presence. Then Snow realized the shinobi had been making handseals the whole time.

"I win. Katon: phoenix rising."

And the world ended in flame.

"Oh stop being so dramatic Snow." Lightning admonished her fellow L'cie.

"So much fire, so much _fire_…" Snow was in the fetal position amongst the ashes that coated the ground.

The ashes which were all that was left of their foes.

"We get it, you're scarred for life, now be a man and pull yourself together!" Lightning shouted at the prone man as she kicked him in the side.

Snow glared at the woman for her lack of compassion, and got up off the ground.

"Fine, but what do we do now?" he asked, looking at the still form of Naruto a short distance away.

Lightning glanced at the shinobi as well, before looking Snow in the eye.

"Simple, we've rescued them once," She responded, prompting Naruto to look at them over his shoulder.

"We just have to do it again."

**I know, I'm evil for making you wait so long then leaving you with a cliffhanger.**

**But it's late and I've got finals tomorrow so I think I'll leave you with that.**

**You know the drill, reviews feed my creativity so send one if you can.**

**Suggestions are still welcome even though I've got the next few chapters more or less planned out.**


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